Marauders and the Order
by Nichole Monroe
Summary: Hermione goes back in time to change the past to help Harry gets a happy childhood. To help her she brings along the seven books and possibly some other people will help along the way.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Hermione's P.O.V.

The War has been over for a couple months now. My dear friend, Harry has lost so much. Orphaned at a year old, abandoned on a doorstep by someone we trusted and not knowing the true love of family until he met Ron and I. It was then I knew that the decision became clear. I have to change the past in order to save my friend from a horrible life.

I climbed the stairs into the Headmaster's office and went right to the portrait of Dumbledore. "Ah, Miss Granger, what do I owe this pleasure?" Dumbledore asked. "How do I go back and change the future?" I asked. "Why would you do something like that Miss Granger?" he asked. "Harry, I want him to be able to grow up knowing his parents. I want Sirius to be able to be in Harry's life. I also want Remus to be in his little boy's life." I said trying hard not to break down in tears. "I see, you want to go back and have the Order stop Voldemort before the prophecy is foretold." Dumbledore said. "Yes, I know changing the past is dangerous but I need to do this for Harry." I said. "Alright, I will get you to James and Lily's house. Probably while she is pregnant with Harry will be the best. I have gathered everything you need. There are seven books hidden in a compartment. I got these from the future and they are written about Harry. From the point of the day Harry became an orphan to the ending of the battle. Take these and a note, this note will help explain what has happened to the Order." Dumbledore said. "You knew that I was going to ask this?" I asked. "I did Hermione. I wanted someone to do this. If this happens then we can get Tom before any other people get hurt." Dumbledore said. I nodded and then suddenly I was engulfed in a purple light and I clutched the stack of books to my chest.

When I landed I was in front of a house and I could tell that it was protected by magic. And I knew that the occupants inside knew that I was here now. Right then a group of people came out of the house with their wands pointed at me.

"Who are you? State your business!" yelled a black haired man. I couldn't believe that I was staring at the younger versions of the people that I know. "Please, it's hard to explain. Can you let me inside and I will explain everything. Even under veritaserum if you don't believe me." I said. Lily came up behind James and put a hand on his arm that was holding the wand at me. I could tell that Harry would be born in a few months.

"Let her in. For some reason I trust her." Lily said. I smiled and she led me into the house. We went into the living room and we all sat down, the marauders and the other people I recognize and some I didn't were staring at me.

"So who exactly are you?" James asked. "My name is Hermione Granger and I came from the future to change the past to help a dear friend of mine." I said. "If you're from the future than when did we defeat Voldemort?" Sirius asked. "June of my seventh year at Hogwarts. But it was at a heavy price, so many people had to die in order for my friend to defeat Voldemort. After the battle was over I thought for many months and finally came up with a plan. I went up the Headmaster's office and spoke with Dumbledore's portrait and he sent me to the past to change the future." I said.

"Wait, so who is this friend that lost so many people and yet killed Voldemort?" James asked. "You will find out anyway, it's your son. These books are from our years at Hogwarts." I said. "So you are friends with Prongs' son? Tell me are you two together?" Sirius asked. "Padfoot! I bet they are more like siblings than anything." Remus said. "That we are. So do you want to start?" I asked. "Of course, let's get settled and introduce ourselves before we go on with the books." Lily said. In the room with me was Alice and Frank Longbottom, and Alice was pregnant with Neville, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Ron was asleep in the crib in the corner while the other kids were playing around it, and two of the professors from Hogwarts, Dumbledore and McGonagall. I smiled and pulled out the first book and handed it to them. Remus was the first person to take it so he was the first to read.


	2. Chapter 1: Boy Who Lived

Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived

"**Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone"** Remus said. "What's the Sorcerer's Stone?" Sirius asked. "Not telling, Harry and I had to find out on our own and so do you." I said. Lily giggled and leaned in to whisper in my ear.

"This is going to kill them then." she whispered. "Probably," I said with a small laugh. "Can I continue?" Remus asked. I nodded and he went back to reading the book.

"**Chapter One: The Boy Who Lived, **

"What does that mean?" James and Sirius asked. "Not telling, you have to find out, Remus please continue." I said.

"**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number four Privet Drive were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense." **

"What's so wrong with being strange? There's nothing wrong with that." James said. "Your one to talk." Sirius said. "Shut up, and continue to read the story." I said.

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbors. The Dursley's had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

**The Dursley's had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"What about the Potters?" Lily asked. "Yay, we're awesome." James said. From the other side of James Sirius snorted. "What, are you saying that we aren't awesome?" James asked. "No, you're awesome at times. When we do pranks on Snivelles." Sirius said. "Prongs, Padfoot, shut up so we can continue to read." Remus said.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursley's shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potter's arrived in the street. The Dursley's knew that the Potter's had a small son, too, but they had never seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"This is really my sister, whoever wrote this book described my sister right down to her personality." Lily said. "Yeah, and they sure don't like our son. There's nothing wrong with our son." James said. "Other than the fact that you're the father." Sirius said. "I would make a great father, right Hermione?" James asked me. I looked at and gave a little nod, it is going to hurt them really badly when they find out that they are dead and Harry has to live with these horrible people.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"I see that my sister is still the same as ever, always sticking her nose into other people's business." Lily said. "Have you met the Dursley's Hermione?" Remus asked. "No, but I have seen Mr. Dursley, he doesn't look very nice either." I said.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

"Why would an owl be there?" Molly asked. "This sounds like a Muggle city, so there is no way that an owl would be there." Lily said. "Keep reading and you will find out." I said with a smile.

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his brief case, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

"I'm sorry Lily, but it sounds like your sister's son has no control over her own son." Molly said. "I know, I wonder why she is letting him do this." Lily said.

"**Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive. **

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar- a cat reading a map.**

"Cat's don't read maps, unless it's an animagus." Frank said. "But what would a wizard be doing there?" Arthur asked. "Maybe Hermione can tell us." Sirius said. He looked over at me with a pleading look and I shook my head no. "I can't tell you, it would spoil the surprise." I said. "Your evil, this is torture, probably more so than the cruciatus curse." Sirius said. "Nah, cruciatus is more painful." I said quietly but nobody could hear me so Remus continued reading.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen- then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive- no, looking at the sign; cats couldn't read maps **_**or**_** signs.**

"Wow, I can't believe that a witch or wizard is sitting right in the open like that." Alice said. "This guy is crazy, if he thinks that cats can't read." Sirius said. "You're crazy," everybody said. "You know him in the future?" James asked. "Yes, sadly." I said with a sad smile. I left it at that and Remus continued with the chapter.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"What's a drill?" James asked. "It's a Muggle tool that makes holes." I said. I looked over at Arthur who looked excited over the concept. "Not now Arthur." Molly said.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"What are wizards doing out and about dressed like that?" McGonagall asked. "No idea, but at this point somebody will bound to notice them." Alice said.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes- the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. **

"What happened? Why is everybody acting crazy?" Molly asked. "Hermione knows, but she won't say anything, will you 'Mione?" Sirius asked. "Correct Padfoot," I said with a smile. James, Remus, Lily and Sirius looked at me, wondering if I knew that they were unregistered animagus's.

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt- these people were obviously collecting for something…. Yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead.**

"Why have people become so reckless? Witches and Wizards no better than to do that in a Muggle city." McGonagall said. "Our cover will be blown at this rate." Frank said.

**Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime. Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"I don't think anyone would be happy with him shouting at them." Sirius said. "Why are they even in this story?" James asked. "You'll find out soon enough." I said sadly.

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the bakery.**

"Like he needs it, he is fat enough as it is." Sirius said. "I can't believe that my sister married this man." Lily said.

**He forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"**The Potter's, that's right, that's what I heard-" **

"What about us?" James asked. "What's happened?" Sirius asked. James and Sirius looked at each worriedly about what has happened to James and Lily.

"**- yes, their son, Harry-" **

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his mustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid.**

"He is stupid, and he is just now realizing it, that's sad." Sirius said. "Shut up, Padfoot." Remus said.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew was called Harry.**

"Why doesn't he know his own nephew's name?" Molly asked. "I'm sure we had our reasons or we did and he wasn't paying any attention." Lily said.

**He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Why would I name my son Harvey or Harold, I have always liked the name Harry." Lily said. "Harry is a good name and not a boring name like the others." James said.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her- if **_**he'd **_**had a sister like that … but all the same, those people in cloaks…**

"Why does your sister hate you so much?" James asked. "It's because she's jealous that I'm a witch and she isn't." Lily said. "Really? Is that why she always treated you so horrible? No wonder you don't like to talk about her." Alice said.

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"**Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground.**

"Wow, he isn't upset? I would be if almost got knocked to the ground." Sirius said. "That's because you have no patience." Remus said. "Can we please get back to reading?" Molly asked. Remus turned back to the book and continued to read the first chapter.

**On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passerby stare. "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

"What, how?" Remus asked. Everybody stared in shock at the book. "Just read on, there is more to this." I said. Remus turned back to the book and started reading the book again.

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"His arm fit?" James asked. Everybody laughed a little and then Remus continued reading.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination. **

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw- and it didn't improve his mood- was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"Hey Minnie, what are you doing there?" James asked. "Minnie?" I asked. "It's what James and Sirius call McGonagall." Lily said.

"Are you even sure that it's me?" McGonagall asked. "I'm positive it's you." Sirius said. "Let's read and find out." Remus said.

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"That has to be McGonagall." James said. "I don't think it is her." Frank said. "It has to be." Sirius said. "Want to bet?" Frank asked. "You're on." James and Sirius said. Soon everybody around the room laid bets except for Dumbledore, McGonagall and myself. Lily, James, Sirius, Remus, and Molly betted it was McGonagall and Frank, Alice and Arthur betted it wasn't. Remus then went on with the story.

**Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to tell his wife. **

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley learned a new word ("Won't"). Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"**And finally bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself almost a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?" **

"It sounds like this newscaster is either a squib or a wizard working in the Muggle word." Remus said. "It certainly sounds like it." James said.

"**Well Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early- it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

"Man, if this idiot can figure it out, everybody will." Sirius said. "This is not good!" Remus said. "Well, continue Moony, tell us what happens next." James said. Remus obliged and continued reading.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Er- Petunia, dear- you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

"That's horrible, how could your own sister do this?" Molly asked. "I'm used to it. When you grow up with Petunia as an older sister, you get used to her." Lily said sadly. "It's okay now, you have me and Harry will be here soon enough and we won't let anything happen to him." James said. I smiled and hoped that this will let my best friend have an actual loving family rather than an unloving aunt and uncle who make him work away like a mule.

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?" **

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…" **

"**So?" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"**Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… her crowd."**

"What does he mean by her crowd?" James asked. "Witches and Wizards. They hate magic." Lily said.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son- he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"**

"**I suppose so," said Mrs. Dursley stiffly. **

"**What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Harry is a lovely name. Dudley is the nasty name." Lily said. "I can already tell that this kid Dudley is going to be a handful." Molly said. "That or spoiled rotten." Sirius said.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree." **

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something. **

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have to do with the Potter's? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of- well, he didn't think he could bear it. **

**The Dursley's got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was the even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The potters knew very well that he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on- he yawned and turned over- it couldn't affect them… **

**How very wrong he was.**

"Why do I get the since that something very bad is going to be happening soon." Lily said. I took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. Once everybody finds out that James and Lily are dead, it will hit them very hard.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

"This cat has to McGonagall. Only she will narrow her eyes even as a cat." James said. "You and Sirius would know." McGonagall said. "Yes, they would." Remus said.

**Nothing about this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

"Get ready to lose Arthur." James said with a smile. "No, it couldn't be McGonagall." Frank said.

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. **

"That sounds awesome." James and Sirius said. They looked over at Dumbledore and asked "What is it?" Dumbledore looked over at me with the usual twinkle in his eye. "Do you find out?" he asked. "Of course, so you can't tell them just yet." I said with a smile.

**He clicked it again- the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"What!" Alice, Frank and Arthur shouted. "What are you doing there Minnie?" James asked. "We shall find out soon enough James. Remus, please keep reading." McGonagall said.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. **

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked. **

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day." said Professor McGonagall. **

"**All day? When you could be out celebrating? I must have passed a dozen or so feasts and parties on my way here." **

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily. **

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right." she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no- even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursley's dark living room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls….shooting stars….Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent- I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense." **

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had so little to celebrate for eleven years." **

"Eleven years? But that means that it'll happen next year." Remus said. "At least we defeat him." James said. "But not without a price." I said. "What's the price?" Molly asked. I shook my head and Remus continued to read.

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors." **

**She threw a sharp, sideways look at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has **_**gone, Dumbledore?"**

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore.**

There was a resounding cheer in the living room startling the children in the corner and waking the sleeping babe in the crib. Molly rushes over and picks up baby Ron. It was so cute to see my boyfriend as a baby. I can't wait to see him again. I wonder if they will show up sometime searching for me.

The cheers died down and Remus went back to reading.

"**We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"**A what?" **

"**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"**No thank you." said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops. "As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone-" **

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense- for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort."**_

"There is no reason to be scared of his name." James said. "Yes, but even in our first year people are still scared to say his name." I said. "Even you?" Sirius asked. "Yes, only Harry was the only one who didn't seem all that scared of his name." I said.

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name." **

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know-Who oh, all right, Voldemort, has ever been frightened of." **

"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"That's because you are too noble to use them." McGonagall said.

"**Only because you're too- well**_** noble **_**to use them." **

"Wow, Minnie, did you know that you were going to say that?" James asked. "Well it does sound like something I would say." McGonagall said.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs." **

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, "The owls are nothing next to the rumors that are flying around. You know what everyone's saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?" **

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a fixing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer. **

"**What they're saying," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went after the Potters.**

"Why did he go after us?" Lily asked. She and James put a protective hand over her pregnant belly as if to protect Harry from what is about to happen. Sirius looked at me for some answers as to why Voldemort would go after his best friend.

**The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are – are – that they're- **_**dead**_**." **

"What!" everybody shouted. James as comforting Lily and I could tell that the comfort was also given to Harry inside of Lily's womb.

"Why?" James asked me. "Voldemort marked you for death. I don't exactly know why. All I know that there was a prophecy made and Voldemort somehow knew about it." I said.

"But how did he find them? They must have been under the Fidelius Charm." Remus said. "I can't tell you that. The books tell you, it's the third book that these answers lie in." I said. After a few more minutes Remus went back to reading.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped. **

"**Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"**

"Didn't know you cared about us Minnie." Sirius said. He was trying his hardest to lighten the mood some if at all. "Of course, even I can look past the pranks you four pulled. Why isn't Peter here?" McGonagall asked. "You don't want to know at the moment." I said. Remus continued with the chapter, eager to find out what would happen to Harry.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily. **

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry.**

"What!" the marauders and Lily shouted. "He better have not hurt my son!" Lily growled.

**But- he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill Harry Potter, Voldemort's power somehow broke- and that's why he's gone."**

"Harry defeated Voldemort as an infant?" Lily asked. "In a way." I answered. "That's incredible for one as young as he." McGonagall said.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly**

"**It's- it's true?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed…. He couldn't kill a little boy? It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry survive?"**

"**We can only guess," said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

**"Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me why you're here, of all places?"**

**"I've come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They're the only family he has left now."**

"No, I refuse to let my son stay with them. That's why we asked Sirius to be godfather as soon as we found out that Lily was pregnant." James said. "Yeah, why can' I take him?" Sirius asked. "You'll find out in the third book." I said.

"**You don' mean- you can't mean the people who live here?" cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. "Dumbledore- you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son- I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!"**

"**It's the best place for him," said Dumbledore firmly. "His aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to him when he's older. I've written them a letter."**

"I don't think that a letter is the best thing to give them." Remus said. "You can't explain all of this in a letter anyway." McGonagall said.

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter?**

"How did you know that you were going to say that?" James asked. "Because, I'm the one saying it." McGonagall said. "That's true Prongs." Remus said with a smile.

**These people will never understand him! He'll be famous- a legend- I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Harry Potter day in the future- there will be books about Harry- every child in our world will know his name!"**

"That might be why he decided for Harry to live there. That and Death Eaters would be after him." Frank said. "Yeah and living would Sirius would give him a big ego like his father." Remus said. "Hey!" Sirius and James yelled. Everybody giggled and Remus continued reading.

"**Exactly," said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any boy's head. Famous before he can walk and talk! Famous for something he won't even remember! Can't you see how much better off he'll be, growing up away from all that until he's ready to take it?"**

"Wow, it seems you were thinking the same thing as Dumbledore." Sirius said with a smile. "Why thank you Padfoot." Remus said. "You're more than welcome Moony." Sirius said.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how is the boy getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harry underneath it.**

"I sure hope my son isn't under that." Lily said. "I'm pretty sure that I would have someone come and get him, Lily." Dumbledore said.

**"Hagrid's bringing him."**

**"You think it —wise — to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid; he seems very excited and can't wait to meet our son." James said. "Although, you may have chosen someone a bit better than Hagrid with taking my son from Godric's Hallow." Lily said.

**"I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

"That was kind of creepy." James said. "I would say so." Sirius said.

**"I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"**

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"That sounds like my motorcycle." Sirius said. "It probably is yours then." Remus said. "Can we please go on with the story?" I asked.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild — long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

**"Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

**"Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got him, sir."**

"It is mine, so why didn't I take Harry? It's what James and Lily wanted." Sirius said. "You'll find out." I said. "I hate that answer." Sirius grumbled.

**"No problems, were there?"**

**"No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol."**

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets.**

"At least he's keeping my son warm." Lily said with a smile.

**Inside, just visible, was a baby boy, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over his forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

**"Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

**"Yes," said Dumbledore. "He'll have that scar forever."**

"Sounds like a cool scar, but it's sad the reason behind it." Sirius said. "I wish he would have never gotten the scar in the first place." Lily whispered. She rubbed her swollen belly and James comforted her.

**"Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

**"Even if I could, I wouldn't. Scars can come in handy. I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

**"Could I — could I say good-bye to him, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

**"Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

**"S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles —"**

**"Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? YOU LEFT MY SON ON A DOORSTEP, HE COULD DIE OUT THERE!" Lily shouted. "I agree, you can't just leave an infant on the doorstep, especially since it will most likely rain." Molly said. James held onto Lily so that she wouldn't be tempted to go and kill Dumbledore for leaving Harry on a doorstep.

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

**"Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

**"Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

**"I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

**"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley… He couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter — the boy who lived!"**

"So what did Voldemort use to try and kill him? It can't be the killing curse, nobody can survive that." James said. "Well that's the end of the first chapter, who wants to read next?" Remus asked. "I'll give it a go." Sirius said. "Wow, who are you and what have you done with Sirius Black?" James asked with a smile. "Gits, I just want to know what happens next." Sirius said. Remus then handed the book to Sirius.


	3. Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass

"Who wants to read next?" Remus asked. "I will," Sirius said. We all looked at Sirius as if he had lost his mind. "What? I want to know what happened." Sirius said. Remus handed Sirius the book and he started to read.

**CHAPTER TWO**

**THE VANISHING GLASS**

"Looks like we get to see Harry do some accidental magic." James said. "No kidding," Remus said dryly.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursley's had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed.**

**Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bonnets - but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.**

"Good, maybe either you or Sirius picked him up then." Lily said. "Sadly, I don't think so." Sirius said as he continued reading.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there,**

"Dang, where are you guys?" James asked. "Hopefully, not dead." Lily said. "I am inclined to think that we are there but someone might have forbid us from seeing him." Remus said. "I think that you may be right. Sirius, continue reading." Dumbledore said.

**asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

**"Up! Get up! Now!"**

"That's a horrible way to wake up." Arthur said. "No kidding, my dear sister has always been horrible like that." Lily said.

**Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. "Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it.**

"He remembers that?" Alice asked. "Apparently, that's not a bad memory either." James said. "No kidding, he's got good memory." Remus said. Sirius nodded and continued reading.

**He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

"It wasn't a dream, that's a memory." Lily said.

**His aunt was back outside the door.**

**"Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

**"Nearly," said Harry.**

**"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.**

"Why is she making him cook? He is only a child." Molly said. "Maybe that's how my sister is." Lily said.

**And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

"My sister still comes up with the most horrible nicknames, it seems." Lily said while the others laughed at this.

**Harry groaned.**

**"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"He didn't say anything_ dear_ sister." Lily said.

**"Nothing, nothing..."**

**Dudley's birthday - how could he have forgotten?**

"I wonder why he doesn't like his cousin's birthday." Molly wondered. "I have a feeling that we are about to find out." James said.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider**

"He gets that from you." Lily said. "No kidding, Prongs couldn't find anything in our dorm while at Hogwarts." Sirius said with a smile.

**off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.**

"THEY DID WHAT!" everybody yelled. "How could they do that to a little boy?" Lily asked with tears in her eyes. "Remember, this is why I am here, to change the future and make sure that we can defeat Voldemort sooner rather than later." I said. They calmed down and Sirius continued to read.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. **

**Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise - unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"That better not be my son." Lily said with fury in her voice.

**Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry, **

The look on everybody's face darkened and I motioned for Sirius to continue reading.

**but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"That's something he gets from me." James said with a sad smile.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.**

"Nope, again Potter genes. James was like that until he was about fifteen or sixteen." Remus said. "No kidding, we thought he was going to be short the rest of his life then he sprouted up until he was about as tall as me." Sirius said.

**He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

"Why didn't they give his decent clothes?" Lily asked. "I honestly don't know. But that's why he almost never wore them." I said.

**Harry had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair,**

"Hey, he's a clone of James." Sirius said with a smile. "Just as long as he doesn't cause trouble like his father, then I'm okay with that." Lily said with a smile.

**and bright green eyes.**

"He gets my eyes!" Lily smiled. "He will be a heartbreaker when he gets older then." Sirius said with a smile. "Probably, I wonder if he falls for a red head, Hermione, does my son fall for a red head." James asked. "I'm not going to tell you, you will have to find out for yourself." I said. I looked quickly at Molly and Arthur and wondering what they would think that they have a little girl soon.

**He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

**The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that**

**was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"I don't think he will like it once he enters Hogwarts." Remus said.

**He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.**

**"In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"WHAT! Why would we die in a car crash?" James asked. "No kidding, you love our way of travel more." Remus said. "Well, it is quicker." Lily said. "But why would they lie to Harry about the way we died though?" Frank asked. "Maybe, because my sister has always hated magic and therefore is trying make Harry believe that magic doesn't exist." Lily said with disdain in her voice. Everyone growled in anger and I motioned for Sirius to continue reading.

**she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"Then how is he supposed to learn?" Lily, Remus and Molly asked. "I don't think they wanted him to learn." I said sadly.

**Don't ask questions - that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

**"Comb your hair!"**

"That won't work, Potter hair is untamable." James said. "Don't we all know it." Lily, Sirius and Remus said. I couldn't help but smile.

**he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way - all over the place.**

**Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"So a pig in a wig." James said. Sirius looked up at James with an astonished look but decided to keep reading to see what he thought so funny.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel - Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

"Harry thinks like his father, I don't know whether that is a good thing or a bad thing." Remus said. "Hey!" James said. We laughed and Sirius decided to keep reading.

**Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

**"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"And he's complaining about it?" everyone asked. "My brother doesn't even get that much." Sirius said. Sirius shook his head and then continued reading.

"Too right. Even Regulus didn't get that many, and he was my parents' perfect pureblood prince" Sirius growled.

**"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."**

**"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.**

**Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.**

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right''**

"That's no way to deal with the situation." Molly said. "Mum, can we listen to the story too?" asked a little boy followed closely by two brothers. "Of course you can Bill, Charlie and Percy." Molly said. "Do you know us in the future?" Bill asked me. "Of course I do, I even was at your wedding Bill." I said with a smile. "But girls are icky!" Bill said. "You won't think that for long son." Arthur said with a smile. Sirius than started to read again.

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.**

"Then it probably was." James said with a snort.

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty ... thirty..."**

"He can't even count to thirty-nine!" Remus exclaimed.

**"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

**"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"They're encouraging him!" Molly exclaimed. "That's is not how you would treat the situation." Alice said.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

**"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him." She jerked her head in Harry's direction.**

"They don't even say his name!" Lily said. "It's not that hard to say." James said.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

"Yeah, having fun is such a bad thing for Harry. Lily, we seriously need to talk to your sister about this." James said. "Somehow, I don't think that will work." Lily said softly placing a hand on her pregnant belly.

**"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"I can understand Harry, some cats can be evil." Sirius said. "Why would you say that?" McGonagall asked. "Because of a certain event that happened in Diagon Alley." James said with a laugh. "You actually get along with my cat in the future." I said. "It's official; you have a gone insane Padfoot." James said with a smile. Sirius stuck his tongue out at James and he continued reading.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested. **

**"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."**

"My son has a name; you should use it more often rather than treating him like shit." James said. Everyone in the room agreed and then I motioned for Sirius to continue reading which he did.

**The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there - or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

**"What about what's-her-name, your friend - Yvonne?"**

"My god, they are still friends?" Lily asked shocked.

**"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

**"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).**

"But sadly, that means you would have fun." Remus said with a frown.

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

**"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"Do it!" the marauders shouted.

**"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.**

"Aww man." the marauders said frowning.

**"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "... and leave him in the car..."**

**"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone..."**

"Oh yes, never mind the fact that my son could suffocate and die in a hot car." Lily said.

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying - it had been years since he'd really cried - but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

"What a spoiled little brat." Molly said. "Mum, why is Dudley acting like that?" Charlie asked. "Because he doesn't like his cousin and blames everything on him." Molly said. "He needs to get a spanking then." Percy said.

**"Dinky Duddydums, **

Everybody started to laugh at the horrid nickname of Harry's cousin.

**don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

**"I... don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"Little git." Sirius said. "Sirius Black, do not cuss in front of the children!" Molly said. "Fine, but it's true, I'll just continue reading then." Sirius said.

**Just then, the doorbell rang - "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically - and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat.**

**He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

"Of course, if he was a real friend then he would be able to cry openly in front of them." Remus said. "I know, true friends won't care if you cry and show emotion. Remember that kids for when you go to Hogwarts." James said to Bill, Charlie and Percy. They nodded and Sirius started reading again.

**Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.**

**His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.**

**"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy - any funny business, anything at all - and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"If you do then you will live to regret it Vernon." Lily and James said with a mad glint in their eyes.

**"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly..**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.**

"It's accidental magic Harry, something that my dear sister should have been able to explain to you." Lily said sadly. "Don't worry we will change this, I promise you." James said comforting Lily the best he can.

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.**

**Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off**

"Ha, you can't beat the curse of Potter hair." James said. "No kidding," Lily said with a sigh.

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Lily, surely your sister would know that your son would be doing accidental magic." McGonagall said. "Well apparently my sister just loves to pick on my son for something that isn't his fault." Lily said.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls)**

**The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.**

"Good, maybe some of the accidental stuff he can get away with." James said.

**On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.**

"Did Harry just apparated?" James asked. "No, I'm pretty sure he flew." Lily said. "How would you know that?" Remus asked. "Because, I did it once." Lily said sheepishly.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid- jump.**

"That's a horrible lie Harry; you need to come up with something better than that." James said. "You will not be teaching our son to lie and cause even more trouble at school." Lily said. "Somehow I think that you might be thinking differently by the end of all of this." I said. They looked at me questioningly before Sirius started reading again.

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects.**

"It seems he has a slight obsession with his nephew." Sirius growled. "No kidding." James said with a growl.

**This morning, it was motorcycles. "... roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

"Don't do that Harry." Remus said.

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a moustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

"Mine does." Sirius said. "We know Padfoot; now continue reading or we will hex you." Lily said.

**Dudley and Piers sniggered.**

**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon - they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

"I think we need to watch some cartoons when this is done." James said. "Yes," Remus and Sirius said. "No you won't, your bad enough without the cartoons." Lily said.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop. It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

"There's James' insulting skills, lets' pray that he doesn't get his father's brain as well." Remus said. "Hey!" James said.

**Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him.**

"It seems that he has Lily's brain after all." Remus said. "Is it pick on me day again?" James asked. "Yes," Lily, Remus and Sirius said at once.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top,**

"He's a brat." Charlie said. "Charlie!" Molly said. "It's true through mum." Bill said.

**Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first. Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.**

"We should have known." Arthur said sadly.

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can - but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

**"Make it move," he whined at his father.**

**Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

**"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

**"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself – no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.**

**It winked**

"Why did it wink, snakes can't wink." Frank said. "I think we are about to find out." Remus said.

**Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

"Don't encourage it Harry." James said. "Sweetie, you're talking to a book." Lily said. "I knew that." James murmured.

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: "I get that all the time.**

**"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"Why is Harry talking to a snake, wait how is my son talking to a snake?" James asked. "It would seem that Harry is a parselmouth." Sirius said. "Yes he is." I said with a smile. "But how? Neither Lily or me have the skill in the family." James asked. "Voldemort, and that is all I will say on the matter. It will explain later in the books." I said. "I really hate that answer Hermione." Remus said.

**"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

**"Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see - so you've never been to Brazil?"**

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump.**

**"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

**"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

"Don't you dare hit my son!" Lily growled.

**Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened - one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

Sirius smiled as he read ahead and the others were waiting for what Harry did.

**Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"That's very complicated magic." Lily said. "That's my boy." James said with a smile. Remus smiled and nodded and Sirius continued.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come... Thanksss, amigo."**

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

**"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"**

"Oh shut up you slimy little git." James said.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go - cupboard - stay - no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"They are starving my son!" Lily shouted which resulted in feeling a kick from baby Harry. "Don't worry Lily, we will change everything and Harry will feel loved and will never go without meals." James said. Lily nodded but she was still crying into James chest.

**Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"No child should have to do that." Molly said. Everyone nodded and Sirius continued to read.

**He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.**

**Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

"Did Harry survive the Killing Curse?" James asked me. All I could do is nod my head and then told them to continue reading.

**This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all. His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.**

"No child should go without having to know what their parents look like." Remus said with a furious look in his eyes.

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;**

"Come on, where are Remus and Sirius and Peter?" Lily asked. "Third book will explain it." I said. "I am really starting to start to hate that answer." Remus said.

**the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.**

**A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.**

**At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's the end of the chapter, whose reading next?" Sirius asked. "I will." James said. Sirius handed the book to James and opened up to the third chapter.


	4. Chapter 3: Letters From No One

Chapter 3: Letters From No One

James took the book from Sirius and opened it up to chapter three. A smile spread across his face as he looked at the title of the chapter.

"This Chapter is called **Letters From No One,**" James said. "Does that mean that Harry gets his Hogwarts letter?" Sirius asked. "It makes sense as he is almost eleven." Lily said. I motioned for James to start the chapter and get on with the story.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

"That boy needs a good punishment." Molly said. "No kidding, maybe if his parents disciplined him more he would be better behaved." Alice said. "No kidding but it seems that my dear sister has lost her backbone for discipline." Lily said.

**Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Now that's just stupid." Arthur, Bill and Charlie said. They looked at each other and smiled. James smiled at them and continued reading.

**The rest of them were quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Harry Hunting.**

"He better not touch my son." Lily growled.

**This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

**"They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

**"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it – it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.**

"That's definitely Lily's cheek but just as much of James as well." Remus said.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

"At least it's something." Lily said sadly. James wrapped his arm around her and placed a hand on her pregnant belly before he continued to read.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How in the world is that good training? It makes no sense." Sirius asked. "Who knows, these muggles are strange that's for sure." Bill said.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.**

"I can imagine that." I said with a smile.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

**"Whats this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

**"Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Harry looked in the bowl again.**

**"oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

**"Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dying some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"I really doubt that." Sirius said.

**Harry seriously doubted this, **

"See, he agrees with me." Sirius said with a smile.

**but thought it best not to argue. He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High – like he was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harry's new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. **

**They heard the click of the mail slot and the flop of letters on the doormat.**

**"Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

"What?" Bill asked.

**"Make Harry get it."**

**"Get the mail, Harry."**

"Now that makes more sense," Charlie said.

**"Make Dudley get it."**

"That's it Harry, fight the man!" Sirius cheered.

**"Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

"You better not you pig." Alice said.

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and – a litter for Harry. **

Everyone cheered throughout the room except for McGonagall, Dumbledore and me.

**Harry picked it and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in his whole life, had written to him. Who would? He had no friends, no other relatives – he didn't belong to the library, so he'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**The Cupboard under the Stairs 4 Privet Drive**

**Little Whinging**

**Surrey**

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink.**

"Why is it green anyway?" Sirius asked. Nobody answered him.

**There was no stamp.**

"We don't need stamps to deliver letters though." Percy said.

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger, and a snake surrounding a large letter H.**

"Yes, he's going to Hogwarts!" everyone cheered.

"**Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"That isn't a funny joke." Sirius said. "No kidding, we even know that." James said. Lily slapped his arm and he went back to reading.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

**"Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk..."**

**"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"**

"He should have opened it in the hallway if he didn't want them to know about it." Remus said. "I think he knows that now Remus." I said.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

**"That's mine!" said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

**"Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge. **

**"P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

**"Vernon! Oh my goodness – Vernon!"**

"Good grief she is a drama queen as always." Lily said. "Has your sister always been like this?" Molly asked. "Sadly, yes." she responded.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

**"I want to read that letter," he said loudly.**

"Well, it isn't yours, its Harry's you fat git." Sirius said. "Sirius Black, do not cuss in front of the kids." Molly said. "Yes, ma'am." Sirius said as James laughed at his friend and went back to reading.

**"I want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's mine."**

**"Get out, both of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**Harry didn't move.**

**"I WANT MY LETTER!" he shouted.**

"He has Lily's temper, that's for sure. So Lily's temper, cheek and James insulting skills and whatever else he might get, man I feel sorry for this kid. He is going to get into so many detentions." Remus said. "Tell me about it," I whispered. Remus looked at me and smiled before James went back to reading.

**"Let me see it!" demanded Dudley.**

**"Out!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry,**

"Aw, he could have taken him." Sirius said. "I don't think so, Dudley is about four times his size and he would probably get at least a couple broken bones." Remus said. "If you're done can James continue reading?" Lily asked. They nodded almost fearful of her as James went back to the book.

**his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between the door and floor.**

**"Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address – how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

**"Watching – spying – might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

"Why would we follow muggles?" Bill asked. "Maybe to make sure that Harry is all right." Arthur said. "Well then how come they haven't taken him away yet?" Charlie asked. "I don't know." Molly said sadly.

**"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want -"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

**"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything..."**

"That won't work. They are being really stupid." Frank said. "No kidding, let's hope that he gets his letter soon." Lily said.

**"But - "**

**"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Harry in his cupboard.**

"Wow, the fat cow fit?" Sirius asked. "That's an achievement." Remus said dryly.

**"Where's my letter?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door.**

**"Who's writing to me?" **

**"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

"You can't do that!" Sirius growled. "If they don't answer they will keep coming." McGonagall said. "Really? So that's why the title is _Letters From No One_." Bill said.

**"It was not a mistake," said Harry angrily, "it had my cupboard on it."**

**"SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling.**

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

**"Er – yes, Harry – about this cupboard. Your Aunt and I have been thinking... you're really getting a bit big for it... we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom."**

"You mean to tell me that Dudley had two bedrooms and yet my sister still made my son sleep in a cupboard?" Lily asked with tears in her eyes. "Sadly," I said quietly. Everyone in the room with me had fury in their eyes and I was surprised that the book didn't catch fire.

**"Why?" said Harry.**

"Don't question it!" Sirius said.

**"Don't ask questions!" snapped his uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harry one trip upstairs to move everything he owned from the cupboard to this room. He sat down on the bed and stared around him. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.**

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't want him in there... I need that room... make him get out..."**

"I bet that's the first time he doesn't get what he wants." Alice said. "Is it Hermione?" Sirius asked. "I think so." I answered.

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly. **

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive -"**

"If he wanted to read it, why did he just say that there was another one?" Charlie asked. "Because he's an idiot." Remus said. "Remus!" Molly yelled. "What? It's true." He said sheepishly.

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

**"Go to your cupboard – I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley – go – just go."**

**Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"Uh-oh, if his plans are anything like his dad's then they won't work." Remus said. "Actually, his plans work some of the time." I said. "Really?" they asked. I smiled and they continued reading.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any lights.**

"That's not a bad plan, I'm surprised." Sirius said. "Hey!" James said. They smiled and laughed and James went back to the book.

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door - **

**"AAAARRRGH!" **

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat – something alive!**

"Please be his face." Sirius pleaded. I couldn't help but think that Azkaban made Sirius sane which is actually amazing.

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

"Yes!" Sirius cheered.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

**"I want -" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before his eyes.**

Sirius, Remus and James were silently cursing the Dursley's and I hoped that when this is done that everything will change.

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

**"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't deliver them they'll just give up."**

**"I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

**"Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock a nail with a piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"I think that it's a good thing that we don't think like them." Remus said. "Yep, besides we could have some fun with these people who don't believe in imagination." Sirius said. The marauders grinned at each other and agreed that some payback was in order.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two-dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

**"Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly?" Dudley asked Harry in amazement.**

"I'm sure a lot of people want to talk to him." Lily said. "Actually many people do and some don't in the future but let's not talk about this now." I said. James nodded and then James continued to read.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

**"No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers, "no damn letters today -"**

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one –**

"Why didn't he pick on up off the floor?" Lily asked. "He has quidditch instincts, possibly seeker." James said. He looked at me hoping that I would give him some clue about whether or not Harry plays quidditch or not.

**"Out! OUT!" **

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

**"That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him around the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

**"Shake'em off... shake'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"He's gone crazy; I wonder when someone else realizes it." Sirius said.

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

"Welcome to the real world, you don't always get what you want." Remus growled.

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harry shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry stayed awake, sitting on the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...**

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to the their table.**

**"Scuse me, but is one of you Mr. H. Potter? Only I got about an'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

**Mr. H. Potter**

**Room 17 **

**Railview Hotel**

**Cokeworth**

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way. The woman stared.**

**"I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

**"Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

"Listen to my sister, although I may hate her for how she treats Harry, she is right about this one." Lily said.

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

**"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"Wow, at least his son see's it." Sirius said.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared. It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley sniveled.**

**"It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television."**

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. It it was Monday – and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television – then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry's eleventh birthday.**

"Happy Birthday Harry!" everyone shouted. "I hope he gets his letter soon." Lily said. James comforted her as he kept reading.

**Of course, his birthday were never exactly fun – last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

"That's awful, does get some once he goes to school?" Lily asked. "Of course, you think after seven years of being friends that I would get him nothing?" I asked with a smirk.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Why is he smiling?" Percy asked. "He is probably planning something not good son." Arthur said.

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

**"Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

**"Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

**"I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and fireplace was damp empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas. **

"Those aren't rations." Sirius said. "Those aren't good for growing boys, well at least Harry." Molly said.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

**"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

Everyone growled again and James went back to reading.

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. **

**Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hunt and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went to the lumpy bed next door, and Harry was left to find the softest bit of floor he could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

"He better not get sick." Lily and Molly said. "Don't worry, he is rarely sick. Though he does make up for it in injuries." I said.

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry couldn't sleep. He shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and he'd be eleven. Thirty seconds... Twenty... ten... nine – maybe he'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him –three... two... one...**

**BOOM**

**The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"Who is it?" Bill, Charlie and Percy asked. "We have to start a new chapter to know that." James said. "I'll read next." Lily said. James handed the book to Lily and she smiled when she read the chapter title.


	5. Chapter 4: The Keeper of Keys

Lily took the book but before she could start the chapter the alarms around the house went off.

"Are you expecting company?" Alice asked.

"Well I wouldn't be surprised if Ron and Harry showed up." Hermione said.

"My Ron?" Molly asked. Hermione nodded and Dumbledore led in two boys and Hermione recognized them immediately Harry had Teddy in his arms.

"Hermione, where the bloody hell are we?" Ron asked. Harry shifted Teddy in his arms and slapped him.

"Look around mate; I think we're in the past." Harry said. Hermione smiled and nodded and Harry's eyes landed on his parents, he couldn't move as he looked at them. Lily stood up and went for him and hugged him tightly.

"I'm so sorry for not being there for you. You look so much like your father." Lily said studying his face.

"You won't believe how many times I've heard that." Harry said.

"I bet, who is that in your arms?" James asked worriedly.

"My godson, Teddy." Harry said looking over at Remus.

"Who is his parents?" Sirius asked. Teddy was asleep so his features became his features became natural and he looked a lot like Remus. Remus stared at him wide eyed.

"He's mine, isn't he?" he asked Harry nodded and handed the sleeping babe to his younger father.

"Who's his mother?" Molly asked as she stood up to hug Ron.

"It's a surprise," Hermione said.

"So not to be rude or anything, but what are we doing?" Ron asked as he stepped out of his mother's embrace and looked around the room.

"We're changing the future by reading about Harry's years at Hogwarts." James said. Harry and Ron looked at each other than to Hermione.

"We can do that?" Harry asked quietly.

"Yes Harry," she said with a smile. He hugged her and they settled down to read the next chapter.

"**Chapter 4: The Keeper of Keys," **Lily read.

"Oh, I finally get my letter." Harry said.

"Yeah, it only took a couple thousand." Sirius said.

**BOOM.**

**They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.**

**"****Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands – now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"HE BROUGHT A GUN!" Lily screeched. Remus cringed but didn't say anything.

"Does he have any sense of right and wrong?" Arthur asked.

"I really don't think so." Harry said shaking his head with a smile.

**"****Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!"**

**There was a pause. Then —**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

**A giant of a man**

"Well it has to be Hagrid; I don't know anyone else who is that tall." Sirius said.

"Well he is half-giant." Ron said.

"How do you know?" Remus asked.

"You'll learn a lot of secrets about Hogwarts and people that you've never knew before." Harry said with a grin.

"We're very nosy." Hermione said.

"Great, that means trouble." Lily said.

**was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

**"****Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"**

"That's definitely Hagrid," Remus said with a fond smile.

"He becomes my first friend." Harry said.

"Hey," Ron said with a pout.

"I met you on the train." Harry pointed out. Ron shrugged and looked over at his brothers sitting around his parents listening. It was all so weird.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

**"****Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

**"****An' here's Harry!" said the giant.**

**Harry looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

**Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes." **

"That's the first time I heard that." Harry said.

"Definitely not the last either." Ron said.

"Nope, though it does get old sometimes." Harry said.

"I can imagine." Lily said.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

**"****I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!" **

**"****Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; **

**he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room. **

"At least the gun's gone." Remus said with a relieved sigh.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on. **

**"****Anyway — Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursley's, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right." **

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Harry **_**written on it in green icing.**

"Why green?" Sirius asked wrinkling his nose.

"I don't know, it probably had to do with my eyes." Harry said with a shrug.

**Harry looked up at the giant. He meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Harry James Potter, where are your manners?" Lily asked.

"I don't think he was taught any." Sirius said. Harry glared at his godfather and he shrank and hid behind Remus.

"He has Lily's glare," Remus said with a smirk.

**The giant chuckled. **

**"****True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts." **

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. **

**"****What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind." **

"Don't you dare drink in front of children." Molly said.

"He doesn't, though I think he did take a drink of Butterbeer, it had the same color." Harry said.

"That's not too bad." Arthur said.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.**

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

**"****Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

"You tell him Hagrid." Alice said.

"You are still really skinny." Lily said looking at her grown son. Harry shrugged.

"It must be my metabolism, almost like Ron, and he eats a lot more than I do." Harry said.

"Boys," Molly said shaking her head with a fond smile.

**He passed the sausages to Harry, who was so hungry he had never tasted anything so wonderful, but he still couldn't take his eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

**"****Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

"He won't because my dear _loving _sister never told." Lily said scoldingly.

"He tells me mum, don't worry about it." Harry said. He was smiling, saying the word mum made him feel so much better than he felt in at least two years.

**"****Er — no," said Harry.**

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

**"****Sorry," Harry said quickly.**

**"**_**Sorry**_**?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursley's, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"**

**"****All what?" asked Harry. **

"Hagrid is not going to like this at all." Franks said.

"No, and I don't feel sorry for the Dursley's at all." Lily said.

**"****ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered.**

Lily toned it down a bit so not to wake the sleeping infants and not to hurt Remus' ears.

**"****Now wait jus' one second!" **

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursley's were cowering against the wall. **

**"****Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursley's, "that this boy — this boy! — knows nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"**

"Okay, that could have been phrased differently." Remus said.

"Yeah," Lily said agreeing with them.

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. He had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.**

**"****I know **_**some **_**things," he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."**

"How were your grades?" Lily asked.

"They were alright." Harry said.

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About **_**our **_**world, I mean. **_**Your **_**world. **_**My **_**world. **_**Yer parents' world**_**."**

**"****What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

**"****DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble." Hagrid stared wildly at Harry. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous**_**. You're **_**famous**_**."**

"Oh Hagrid, you're going to confuse him." Molly said sadly.

**"****What? My — my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?" **

**"****Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. **

**"****Yeh don' know what yeh **_**are**_**?" he said finally. **

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. **

**"****Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"**

"Good luck with that." Bill said. Ron and Harry looked over at the oldest brother.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, it's just so weird to be taller and older than you." Ron said.

"I bet it is." Arthur said with a smile.

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

**"****You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"**

**"****Kept **_**what **_**from me?" said Harry eagerly.**

**"****STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

**"****Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid. "Harry — yer a wizard."**

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

**"****I'm a **_**what**_**?" gasped Harry.**

"That's about what I said." Hermione said.

"You're a muggleborn?" Lily asked.

"Yep," Hermione said with a smile.

**"****A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to **_**Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. **_**He pulled out the letter and read:**

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

_**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**_

_**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**_

_**Dear Mr. Potter,**_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**_

_**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall,**_

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"Really mate, that was your first question?" Ron asked.

"Think about for a second Ron, Harry's birthday is on 31st and they were expecting his owl on that day then it was a very valid question." Hermione said.

**"****Gallopin' Gorgons, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl**

"Poor Owl," Charlie said. Ron smiled at his older brother, glad to see that he doesn't change at all.

— **a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry could read upside down:**

_**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**_

_**Given Harry his letter.**_

_**Taking him to buy his things tomorrow.**_

_**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.**_

_**Hagrid**_

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly.**

**"****Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

**"****He's not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

**"****I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.**

**"****A what?" said Harry, interested.**

**"****A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

**"****We swore when we took him in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of him! Wizard indeed!"**

**"****You **_**knew**_**?" said Harry. "You **_**knew **_**I'm a — a wizard?"**

"Of course she knew, she's just too jealous and scared of it not to tell you anything." Lily said.

**"****Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "**_**Knew**_**! Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

"Lily/Mum is dratted!" exclaimed the marauders, Alice, Molly and Harry. Lily smiled and continued reading.

**Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that **_**school **_**— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. **

"Wait what?" James asked.

"Muggleborns are allowed to perform some to show their parents what they are learning." McGonagall said.

"Not cool," James and Sirius said.

**I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak!**

Lily looked down and rubbed her stomach as baby Harry kicked as if he was angry at that. James wrapped an arm around her and whispered that she wasn't a freak.

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

**"****Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as —**_**abnormal **_**— ****and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!" **

"That's a horrible way to find out." Molly said.

"I can't believe she told you like that." Lily said sadly.

**Harry had gone very white. As soon as he found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!" **

**"****CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowin' his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!" **

"You have no idea how overwhelming that was." Harry said.

"I can understand that." Arthur said.

"Are you really that famous?" James asked.

"More so now, and I hate every second of that." Harry said.

**"****But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

**"****I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

**"****Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…"**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —"**

**"****Who?"**

**"****Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

**"****Why not?"**

**"****Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…"**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

**"****Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

**"****Nah — can't spell it. All right —**_**Voldemort**_**. "**

"You actually got him to say it?" Sirius asked shocked.

"You'll find that I do some of the most impossible things." Harry said.

"Very true," Hermione and Ron said.

"I don't want to know do I?" Lily asked.

"Probably not, but you will anyway." Ron said.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power, 'cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

**"****Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before… probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.****Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —"**

Lily stopped reading, tears rolling down her face. Remus took it from her and continued from where she left off.

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

**"****Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find — anywa…**

**"****You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then. But he couldn't do it.**

**Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yer famous, Harry. **

**No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you, an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnon's, the Bones, the Prewett's **

Molly's eyes went wide.

"Not Fabian and Gideon." Molly said. Harry, Ron and Hermione nodded sadly and she broke down crying into Arthur's shoulder.

"When?" Sirius asked thickly.

"I don't remember, I was really young." Ron said.

— **an' you was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh.**

"You shouldn't have to remember that." Lily said.

"The three of us can very clearly now." Hermione said. The group looked at them to see them with scars along their arms and some on their faces.

"What happened to you guys?" Alice asked.

"War did," Harry said.

**Hagrid was watching him sadly.**

**"****Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot…."**

**"****Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursley's were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

**"****Now, you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you,****probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

"He never beat you did he?" Remus asked with a growl.

"No, they just made me unhappy." Harry said.

— **and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion**

"No it isn't!" the group exclaimed.

— **asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end -" **

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. **

"Do it Hagrid!" Sirius cheered.

**Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…" **

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent. **

**"****That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor. **

**Harry, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them. **

**"****But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?" **

"Don't be afraid of the name." James said.

"I'm not, fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself." Harry said. Dumbledore smiled at him, his eyes twinkling very brightly.

**"****Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go? **

**"****Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. **

"He didn't," Harry said.

"What does that mean?" Alice asked.

"Later," the trio said.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time, like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours. Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back. **

**"****Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — **_**I **_**dunno what it was, no one does ****— ****but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but Harry, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake. **

**A wizard? Him? How could he possibly be? He'd spent his life being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if he was really a wizard, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock him in his cupboard? If he'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick him around like a football? **

**"****Hagrid," he said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."**

"Really Harry?" Ron asked.

"What, I was thinking of the treatment." Harry said.

"I know," Ron said.

**To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. **

**"****Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?" **

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… chased by Dudley's gang, he had somehow found himself out of their reach… dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he got his revenge, without even realizing he was doing it? Hadn't he set a boa constrictor on him? **

**Harry looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at him. **

**"****See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"I wish I wasn't." Harry said.

"We know mate," Ron said clapping him on the shoulder.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight. **

**"****Haven't I told you he's not going?" he hissed. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —" **

**"****If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. His name's been down ever since he was born. **

**He's off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his own sort, fer a change, an' he'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—" **

**"****I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon. **

"Oh-uh, he's in for it now." Sirius said.

"I hope Hagrid gives it to him." James said.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!" He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Harry saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers. **

"Nice," the marauders said.

"He isn't allowed to do magic though." McGonagall said.

"I most likely gave him permission." Dumbledore said.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them. **

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard. **

**"****Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do." **

**He cast a sideways look at Harry under his bushy eyebrows. **

**"****Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job." **

**"****Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry. **

**"****Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore." **

**"****Why were you expelled?" **

"You are nosy." Remus said.

"I know," Harry said.

"Do you find out?" Sirius asked.

"We do, but not in this book." Ron said.

**"****It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that." **

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to Harry. **

**"****You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' doormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Ew," the girls said.

"That's the chapter." Lily said.

"I'll read." Bill said. Lily smiled and passed the book to the oldest Weasley child.


End file.
